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Deathgrip

If I hold my phone normally (near the bottom) my signal plummets, is this normal or do I have a lemon?? It is really worrying me, if I grab it near the bottom I go from 3 to 0 but still have service but I am still without bays and my data slows. I don't know if this is normal and I should just accept it or if I should go exchange it.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using XDA App

I haven't been able to produce the "death grip" effect even when I have tried to.

Mine does the same in my house with a pretty weak signal. However, unlike my iPhone 4 (I am a happy convert to android now) which dropped calls and data went to 0, the Captivate seems to keep the connection. Even with zero bars, I get decent data speeds and people say I am loud and clear on the phone.
I wouldn't stress over it. The antenna has to be located somewhere in these phones, and yeah, covering it completely will cause a signal drop. Just be happy the antenna is on the inside and you can't short it with your skin

I get the same thing, but I think where I work is a dead zone, because my old phone had problems holding a signal also. I'll do some more testing when I'm out of here

OK, I will do more testing and make a final decision next week since I am going out of state to a place I know has good coverage and if I get bad signal there it is probably my phone and not coverage area.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using XDA App

I have to completely cover the metal back to drop a couple of bars. Even then, it still performs about the same in speedtests.

It is not the metal back you need to cover on my phone but instead the plastic below the back...
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using XDA App

cropythy said:
It is not the metal back you need to cover on my phone but instead the plastic below the back...
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Tried it this way as well and the results were even closer together.

It's the way Samsung is programming the bars. They underestimate signal strength believe it or not.. it's not like the iPhone where it gives you this crazy readout (before 4.0.1).. it's still wrong, but in the best way possible.

Dropping calls like crazy with Captivate
I was just on a very important call about a new job and my captivate dropped the call 4 times within 15 minutes. I was holding the phone only on the outside. I was not touching the bottom or the back of the phone. How frustrating. It even drops calls when I am using my headset. Just dropping all the time. Any suggestions?

I can get the bars to drop one or two when I hold the phone at the bottom, however (and this is a BIG however!) even with 0 bars, I was just able to make a phone call, and while the signal bounced from 2 to 1 to 0 to 1 bars, the call didn't drop or even so much as hiccup.
As heygrl said, it seems however Samsung calculates their bars, the phones are displaying a lot less signal strength than they actually have, which is a good thing in my book. It's a nice surprise to look at your screen, see 0 bars, desperately try to make a call anyway, and have it go through!

Mantooth said:
I was just on a very important call about a new job and my captivate dropped the call 4 times within 15 minutes. I was holding the phone only on the outside. I was not touching the bottom or the back of the phone. How frustrating. It even drops calls when I am using my headset. Just dropping all the time. Any suggestions?
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Click to collapse
Sounds like the AT&T network to me.
Yeah you can see how Samsung reinterprets the phones recieved signal strength under the Service Menu. I also suspected that the reason why we only see -81dBm max and not -51dBm like the Captivate is because Samsung didn't completely readjust the scaling and just cut off one visible bar. Under the Service Menu (Antenna/ADC or something of the sort) you can see where it says "Antenna bar: 5" when we clearly only have 4. The same goes for actual signal strength, you can see a very usable 10 RSSI but Samsung designed the bars to show that as "0" instead of 1.

I do notice that when I'm in areas that are 1-2 bars, giving the phone the deathgrip does kill the signal totally. But when I'm out in full service I can hold it any way and no problem.

are cases necessary ?

I was messing around with my captivate and i was noticing it wasnt getting same amount of service that my old iphone 3g did. When i was in an area where service was quite sketchy , i would put it down and get two or three bars. When I picked it up in my hands it would drop for one bar or no service.
So the question is do we have to buy cases for these phones since service drops so much by having direct contact with the phone ?

no, cases are not necessary for reception.
If you are completely losing signal when its in your hands, you need to go to att and get a new sim card. If that doesnt work, have them replace your phone.
Note: if you are holding the phone by the bottom and losing bars but your signal is not dropping, this is perfectly normal. All phones do this to an extent since the antenna is located at the bottom. If you completely lose signal or drop calls because of it, you have a serious problem.

what i have noticed thats not just 3g reception its wifi too which is weird, i pick it up in my hand i lose a bar of wifi when i am in the same room as the cablemodem/router that doesnt seem right.
Usually when i pick up the phone it drops the three bars i hold it in my left hand usually. Another issue is i bought this phone thru amazon since it was 30 bucks cheaper for upgrade price, will att still allow for trade in or do i have to send back to amazon ?

I too have noticed this with my phone. Never really noticed until this iPhone 4 shiz came out. Guessing its par for the course.

areas where i used to get full bars i am not getting full anymore when i pick up the phone, it also happens with wifi which is really problematic.
Sitting in same room as router and cable modem and dropping below full wifi connection, and if i walk out of the room drops to one bar of wifi guess i will have to call att tomorrow and return my phone
Kind of off topic how thorougly do they check thier phones am i going to have to find an rom that has all the att bloatware stuff on it ?

This is a sad day really liked this phone , but appears i am going to have to return it , since this issue is a known issue so getting a new phone wont make these problems go away.
I was reading on another forum site that a lot of people having this same issue oh well i guess

wifi doesnt drop for me... thats really strange. in any case if you are only losing about 2 bars its normal and will happen with most phones. If you lose signal completly then its abnormal and ur phone/hardware is faulty.

yeah was reading about antennae issue on back part of phone where the battery cover is you cant touch it apparently. well i am going from 2 or 3 bars to zero bars pretty much.
An good example would be when i went into apple store which has 3g microcell tower in the store to hide the antennae problem with iphone 4 , i dont get full service and the iphones get full no matter how hard you grip them.
Going to give both samsung and att a call tomorrow morning to see what i can do i really dont think its fair to have to eat the upgrade and restock fee when phone cant perform normal functions

mongstradamus said:
yeah was reading about antennae issue on back part of phone where the battery cover is you cant touch it apparently. well i am going from 2 or 3 bars to zero bars pretty much.
An good example would be when i went into apple store which has 3g microcell tower in the store to hide the antennae problem with iphone 4 , i dont get full service and the iphones get full no matter how hard you grip them.
Going to give both samsung and att a call tomorrow morning to see what i can do i really dont think its fair to have to eat the upgrade and restock fee when phone cant perform normal functions
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If you got the phone from amazon and are returning it, then it is free to return with no restocking fee. At least thats what they told me. All you gotta do is call the number for returns so u can get a return shipping label from them. Did you ask if you could exchange for another captivate at a local At&t Warranty Center?

I will be calling att and samsung tomorrow when i wake up to see what they have to say. As far as returning it to att, if its a known issue then an replacement phone will have the same possible issues.
So i did an little experiment to test 3g and wifi. I walked across the room, which has the modem and router, and stood by the door. got no 3g service in my hand, and the wifi dropped from full bars to just 1 bar of wifi in the same room.

I don't know what you guys are talking about. I can touch the phone any which way and the bar fluctuates by a single bar, if even that. I get more fluctuation walking around in my house then I do holding it. The only time I've ever noticed a significant drop in reception has been literally covering the phone front and back with both hands. Maybe you guys are just in poor reception areas. Before you completely discount the phone and send it back, instead of relying on the bars, look at the actual db signal in the settings.

I have looked at those i get an big fat zero. the other issue i have is my wifi goes from full to 1 bar by just moving to other side of the room thats not good at all.
I have been to areas of my town where i know there is full 3g service, and i get maybe two or three bars. i was thinking maybe an case would mask that particular issue since i am not directly touching the phone. The fact that i really like this phone i would just do the case thing if that were a solution

asrrin29 said:
I don't know what you guys are talking about. I can touch the phone any which way and the bar fluctuates by a single bar, if even that. I get more fluctuation walking around in my house then I do holding it. The only time I've ever noticed a significant drop in reception has been literally covering the phone front and back with both hands. Maybe you guys are just in poor reception areas. Before you completely discount the phone and send it back, instead of relying on the bars, look at the actual db signal in the settings.
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I will admit the area where i live doesn't have the best reception in the world, but when i place the phone on an table or sofa, i get -105 dbm and 4 asu. once i pick it up drops to 0 dbm and 0 asu quite odd.

Just to make sure, I removed my phone from it's case, and plastered my hands all over it. With a solid 3 bars, I touched sides, with two fingers all the way to a two handed deathgrip. Not only did I not get a degradation of bars, at one point I got a bar increase! I palmed the back, front, cradled it my hands, held it to my body. I didn't get any change in bars.
Maybe it's the band of cell phone signal in your area. I know that either the 1900mhz or 850mhz is better than the other in terms of penetrating power, so if your signal is going over the weaker one, that may be the issue.

I am just going to give samsung a call , when i actually use phone i am not touching the back of the phone. I have taken it into area where usually you should get full service and i dont get it if i hold it in my hand.
I also did an comparison with my old 3g iphone and the 3g was getting two to three more bars...
The other major issue is my wifi signal dropping from full to one bar in the same room of the router that shouldnt be happening

well its like i said, this signal issue that you few are having isnt that wide spread. go get a replacement sim, if that doesnt work then simply have ur carrier replace your phone. you should be within the 30 day trial period anyway... dont bother talking directly with samsung, getting a phone replacement from att would be quicker.

well the only issue with returning the phone i dindt buy it directly from att , got it thru amazon so returning to get a new one may be a bit problematic i think.

The iPhone's issue is different - it has an external antenna, and one finger in the wrong place rendered no signal - one finger bridging the gap between antennas - creating an electrical conductive circuit.
The Captivate (and all other phones) have internal antennas covered with plastic (the phone's case) - so the antenna is already covered.
Apple tried to deflect criticism by talking about "The grip of death" killing signal on other phones. While this is true, it is not what plagues the iphone - although it can. All phones will show signal drop if you wrap your hand (or some other signal blocking material) around the phone.
The Problem with trying to measure the signal drop, is that signal bars are not very accurate - you need to be in the phone menus where it shows you actual signal strength in DB - I don't think you will get this for WiFi though. Then of course there are all kinds of external interference issues - Microwave ovens, cordless phones, etc.
So, unless you measure this stuff in a controlled environment, like consumer reports did, where you can control the transmitter and all eliminate all external influences, then most observations are not including all environmental factors.
My phone works great, regardless of what the bars say.

well i have seen my phones service go from -105 dbm 4 asu to nothing when i picked up the phone. and then i would get the nice blue circle with line thru it.
I did an speed test also with phone while holding it and when putting it on an table , the times i would actually get no bars on my phone while holding i would get 1/3 the dl speed of when it was sitting on a table.
I will have to wait till tues to get an replacement phone and hopefully i wont have the same issues

so are you getting the replacement from att or amazon?

[Q] Signal:Iphone 4 vs Inspire

Ok so I love the inspire, big screen is awesome compares to the iphone 4. I'm just wonder if anyone here have both phone and find that the iphone 4 get better reception than the inspire? Where I live for some reason, I get a low signal with att but on the iphone 4, at least it will hold a constant signal where I can make and receive calls and text ect, with the inspire, the signal would go in and out, i would get like miss call alert and stuff when the phone doesnt even ring. Now I've try flashing a couple of different radio but they all dont really improve anything. Anyone can suggest a radio firmware that get good signal? I dont care about battery life. Btw im on leedroid rom and tried the suggested radio, no good either.

delete post

Yeah I am having the same issue. I have an iphone 3g and 4 as well as many other htc,samsung,palm smartphones. Of them all the inspire has the weakest signal all things being equal. Kinda disappointing. I honestly think it has something to do with the crap ass cover on the bottom,aka one of the antenna's. I plan to experiment this weekend and see if something cant be done. I am on the stock radio but have tried many different roms and tons of playing in the build.prop to no avail,except exponentially increased data speeds.
maybe there are just some bunk inspires out there. I dont get too many dropped calls and my data is ok, but compared to every other phone I have its sub par.

It could be the 4g reception is not as strong I also came from iPhone 4 and I noticed the reception in some spots on the inspire is not as good but I am happy over all
Sent from my Desire HD using XDA App

No experience with an iphone 4, but I can definitely say it's not quite as strong as the captivate I came from, but not to the point that it's worth switching back.
That's not really my problem though, the audio quality on it is pretty bad, talking on the phone itself it's not too bad, but while talking on my bluetooth headset the "gsm hiss" is extremely pronounced at all times.

I came from a craptivate, and here in Los Angeles County, USA, my signal with the Inspire 4g is way better than my craptivate... and it spends less time scanning for a signal too than the samsung!

You should compare dBm of each phone because HTC uses a different range with their bars. At -89dBm HTC will switch to 3 bars, -109dBm will be near zero bars, etc. But apple uses completely different range. So the only way to know for sure is compare dBm numbers.

Newer radios give approximately a 10 db increase over stock.
Bars mean nothing. If you are not comparing db you're doing it wrong and inaccurately.

I used the phono app on the inspire and the reading on it is always worst than the iPhone, I really think it's the antenna design on the inspire. Newer radio works better? Is it the new one that leak from the gingerbread rom? I might have to try that, if I can get 10db more and lose a bit of battery life then I'll gladly do it, I really like this phone but at the end of the day if I can't use it as a phone, it's no good to me

Radio thread.
forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=877295

I am not having any speed issues at all with the Inspire.
It does seem to switch between GSM and WCDMA a little more frequently but speed is the fastest I have ever had on a mobile device without WIFI on.

I just did a quick test again because I am getting very annoyed at the poor signal of this phone. I have an aria here next to me. The aria is at -91db and the inspire in the same spot is at -103-105db, obviously the higher the worse it is. Also the aria is more stable in that it goes right to -91 and stays there while the inspire takes some time to settle, and never really settles completely like the aria. I did experiment with the antenna but could never get the signal any better than the cover despite my best efforts.
I have not given up yet. I will try a different radio as I have only used the stocker since the beginning. 10+db's is a hell of a difference in my opinion, and in real wold experience the difference is painfully obvious. I dont even want to get into how much better the signal is on my dumbphone.

Try radio 12.41.60.19_26.06.04.14_M, I was having a ton of dropped calls on the stock radio, that fixed it.

I have a weaker signal but I drop significantly fewer calls then I did when I had an iphone 4.
Sent from someplace using something to send it.

romeo0119 said:
Ok so I love the inspire, big screen is awesome compares to the iphone 4. I'm just wonder if anyone here have both phone and find that the iphone 4 get better reception than the inspire? Where I live for some reason, I get a low signal with att but on the iphone 4, at least it will hold a constant signal where I can make and receive calls and text ect, with the inspire, the signal would go in and out, i would get like miss call alert and stuff when the phone doesnt even ring. Now I've try flashing a couple of different radio but they all dont really improve anything. Anyone can suggest a radio firmware that get good signal? I dont care about battery life. Btw im on leedroid rom and tried the suggested radio, no good either.
Click to expand...
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I have both and just compared them. I held them side by side and observed the signal bars and both were identical with two bars showing. I moved them apart about 10 inches...still holding them in hand.. and the signal is 1 bar each. I laid them down side by side and saw that the Inspire had 3 bars, the iPhone 4 had 2 bars. I moved them about 3 inches and now the iPhone has 3 bars and the Inspire has 1 to 2 bars. I moved them to a different spot about 1 foot away and separated them by about 5 inches and they both show 2 bars consistently.
From what I'm seeing, I would say they both have identical signal strength quality. At one point I did see 4 bars on the iPhone 4. So I moved the Inspire to where the iPhone 4 had 4 bars...exact same position and place...but it stuck with 3 bars and never showed the 4.

stickbo said:
I just did a quick test again because I am getting very annoyed at the poor signal of this phone. I have an aria here next to me. The aria is at -91db and the inspire in the same spot is at -103-105db, obviously the higher the worse it is. Also the aria is more stable in that it goes right to -91 and stays there while the inspire takes some time to settle, and never really settles completely like the aria. I did experiment with the antenna but could never get the signal any better than the cover despite my best efforts.
I have not given up yet. I will try a different radio as I have only used the stocker since the beginning. 10+db's is a hell of a difference in my opinion, and in real wold experience the difference is painfully obvious. I dont even want to get into how much better the signal is on my dumbphone.
Click to expand...
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That is pretty weak. Have you laid both on a table so that your hand is away from the antenna not causing attenuation? Just as a baseline test.

That's exactly how I did it. Layed it on a my wooden dining room table in the middle of an empty room. I even moved away so as to keep my body from being a shield/conductor. Same sim card to by the way.
as for the iphone 4, they calculate their bars differently than htc does. Apple is notorious for giving more bars per db than other makers, they took some heat over it a while back, remember antenna gate.
I am gonna try to switch to the radio listed above and see what happens. I love this phone too much to give up that easy.

Yeah dBm is the best thing to look at. All I can say is keep doing more tests and see if you can find any more info. Maybe different locations. It is possible for the phone to use 2 different cell sites in same exact spot. So install the app antennas and record which towers on the map your phone is using.

My inspire gets probably between 2-3 bars in my area. Compared to my Cappy before i rooted would get 2bars at the most and i would lose a signal in alot of places.

Stop quoting how many bars you get. It is a meaningless comparison.
If you aren't comparing db you are doing it wrong.

Signal Strength Issues

Anyone else experiencing a weaker signal with the AT&T One X versus other phones? I've had a Samsung Captivate and Lumia 900 at my work desk over the past ten months and have gotten 3-4 bars on HSPA+. With the One X, I only get one bar, and can't even send/receive text messages.
I'm in the middle of the first floor on a five story building... I would understand not getting a strong signal here, but the fact that my Captivate and Lumia 900 both worked fine in this same location makes me think something's up.

Actually, this phone has better signal than any other phone I've had.

I get a better signal than other phones. My bigger frustration is that it shows full bars when I have no data connection, or zero bars when everything is streaming just fine...

My signal is terrible. There is.no LTE in my area, but my HSPA sucks. I read something that said the antenna is on the bottom left of the phone, and sure.enough, when I hold it there I get 1 bar all the time. When checking battery usage stats I see lots of yellow and gray under Mobile network signal. Surprisingly thoug, my battery life is great, and I don't drop many calls.
Also, my speed tests are carp. Consistently getting 1-4 mbps down.

My phone had HORRIBLE signal. Nothing anywhere. Texts weren't making it out, and if they did it would be in multiples. Forget about MMS. And it got worse to the point where I was dropping every single call. Also was missing some Google Talk events. So I just exchanged it and got a new SIM card this morning.
In my office I was getting 0-1 bars, with the new one I'm at a pretty solid 3 bars. And so far no odd sms/mms/notification problems. I've already flashed the updated ROM, and rooted it. (the last one was flashed/rooted also) Doing a Titanium restore now...

americasteam said:
Actually, this phone has better signal than any other phone I've had.
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Click to collapse
Same here. As good as or probably better than my last phone. It could have to do with your area. I am well covered by 4G LTE; perhaps other networks are not as well received by the phone's antennas.
Sent from my HTC One X using XDA

LTE signal indicator issues

I've realised that the signal strength in Phone Status (in dBm) does not seem to work correctly when on LTE. Very often, it'll show that my signal is -113 dBm, which is an extremely weak signal, while showing 2 or 3 signal bars. Something is obviously wrong as 3 out of 4 bars should NEVER be as weak a signal as -113 dBm. Is anyone else experiencing this?
G920F (bought from Germany) on 3 UK.

Japultra said:
I've realised that the signal strength in Phone Status (in dBm) does not seem to work correctly when on LTE. Very often, it'll show that my signal is -113 dBm, which is an extremely weak signal, while showing 2 or 3 signal bars. Something is obviously wrong as 3 out of 4 bars should NEVER be as weak a signal as -113 dBm. Is anyone else experiencing this?
G920F (bought from Germany) on 3 UK.
Click to expand...
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LTE dBm are calculated differently. 113 is good around 140 is bad.

SmiLey497 said:
LTE dBm work different. 113 is good around 140 is bad.
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I've read that signal drops off at -120, so -113 is pretty close to the edge, but either way, that signal indicator is wrong. If I go into the service menu (*#0011#) the RSRP (dBm) it shows fluctuates from -91 to -98, which seems to be the more appropriate dBm for 3 bars of signal. The dBm in my phone status still stays static at -113 (it doesn't fluctuate at all)

As per your request in the other topic here are my findings.
I live in Amsterdam and I work in the harbour area (a lot of open spaces). I work next to a 4 x 3 meter window. With every device I've owned I would get full reception. Though under settings > device > status it would always say -113. My reception bar is always near empty.
When I go outside, even in the middle of a park in the middle of the city with nobody around, I will still get the same result. In my apartmentbuilding, on the 7th floor outside on my balcony, same result.
I'm currently in the office so I thought I'd send a screenshot of what the *#0011# screen looks like.
(Apologies for the big image)
In my parking garage I would even get reception with my OnePlus One, which isn't really great when it comes to reception. It would be only a sliver, but at least I would get something. The S6 doesn't get anything. When I leave the bigger urban area I'm immediately knocked off 4G and 3G and I'm pretty much left to calling and texting. The Netherlands isn't really like the outback of Australia, I had expected better
I can live with not having reception in my parking garage, but I'm more concerned with the fact that I've never seen more reception than you can see in that screenshot and that I have close to no reception when I go out of town. I'm using T-Mobile which I know only uses the higher frequencies. In the Netherlands they use 900 MHz, 1800, 2600 MHz. I don't know if that comes into play much. I had a bit better reception when I was still at Vodafone, but that was a few years back. With a top of the line device like the S6 I had expected better. Much better.
Maybe I should have the device swapped?

Thijsvr said:
As per your request in the other topic here are my findings.
I live in Amsterdam and I work in the harbour area (a lot of open spaces). I work next to a 4 x 3 meter window. With every device I've owned I would get full reception. Though under settings > device > status it would always say -113. My reception bar is always near empty.
When I go outside, even in the middle of a park in the middle of the city with nobody around, I will still get the same result. In my apartmentbuilding, on the 7th floor outside on my balcony, same result.
I'm currently in the office so I thought I'd send a screenshot of what the *#0011# screen looks like.
(Apologies for the big image)
In my parking garage I would even get reception with my OnePlus One, which isn't really great when it comes to reception. It would be only a sliver, but at least I would get something. The S6 doesn't get anything. When I leave the bigger urban area I'm immediately knocked off 4G and 3G and I'm pretty much left to calling and texting. The Netherlands isn't really like the outback of Australia, I had expected better
I can live with not having reception in my parking garage, but I'm more concerned with the fact that I've never seen more reception than you can see in that screenshot and that I have close to no reception when I go out of town. I'm using T-Mobile which I know only uses the higher frequencies. In the Netherlands they use 900 MHz, 1800, 2600 MHz. I don't know if that comes into play much. I had a bit better reception when I was still at Vodafone, but that was a few years back. With a top of the line device like the S6 I had expected better. Much better.
Maybe I should have the device swapped?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I see that your RSRP is the same as what it states in the phone status menu. Does this number ever change? For me, I (mostly) always see -113 (such as right now in my office) but my RSRP actually fluctuates. Screenshot of my RSRP attached.

Japultra said:
I see that your RSRP is the same as what it states in the phone status menu. Does this number ever change? For me, I (mostly) always see -113 (such as right now in my office) but my RSRP actually fluctuates. Screenshot of my RSRP attached.
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Click to collapse
In my phone status window I've never seen it change. In the RSRP it does vary a little bit, from -115 to -110.
I actually just got it working properly for the first time. I went to the rooftop of my office, as far away from anything that could interfere and I got -77. Bars actually went up too which I haven't seen before. So I guess the device really does just have poor reception. Strange that not more people are reporting on this though.
Edit. These guys are also reporting on low signal stuff: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/04/08/samsung_galaxy_s6/

Thijsvr said:
In my phone status window I've never seen it change. In the RSRP it does vary a little bit, from -115 to -110.
I actually just got it working properly for the first time. I went to the rooftop of my office, as far away from anything that could interfere and I got -77. Bars actually went up too which I haven't seen before. So I guess the device really does just have poor reception. Strange that not more people are reporting on this though.
Edit. These guys are also reporting on low signal stuff: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/04/08/samsung_galaxy_s6/
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Unfortunately, I've noticed the same thing, though not nearly as bad as what The Register is experiencing. For me, it is only slightly worse than my G3.

Japultra said:
Unfortunately, I've noticed the same thing, though not nearly as bad as what The Register is experiencing. For me, it is only slightly worse than my G3.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The review sounds pretty accurate to me, but others are reporting their device has connectivity as good as HTC's M9. Luckily I've got an M9 lying around, so I'll put my sim in that and see if it too gives me poor reception.
---------- Post added at 02:49 PM ---------- Previous post was at 02:36 PM ----------
Haha, I guess I have to blame T-Mobile and not Samsung. The M9 I have gets -112 dBm at the same location where the S6 has -113 dBm. Seems the problem is with the network and not with the device. Not sure yet if that's good news or not

Thijsvr said:
The review sounds pretty accurate to me, but others are reporting their device has connectivity as good as HTC's M9. Luckily I've got an M9 lying around, so I'll put my sim in that and see if it too gives me poor reception.
---------- Post added at 02:49 PM ---------- Previous post was at 02:36 PM ----------
Haha, I guess I have to blame T-Mobile and not Samsung. The M9 I have gets -112 dBm at the same location where the S6 has -113 dBm. Seems the problem is with the network and not with the device. Not sure yet if that's good news or not
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Click to collapse
Well, it's good that you know it's not your S6! I was actually walking along a street where I got horrible reception with the G3 (after I posted the last comment) and realised I was actually holding onto a signal when the G3 would lose signal completely. Guess it's not as bad as I thought!

Japultra said:
Well, it's good that you know it's not your S6! I was actually walking along a street where I got horrible reception with the G3 (after I posted the last comment) and realised I was actually holding onto a signal when the G3 would lose signal completely. Guess it's not as bad as I thought!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
We're just too critical Glad we got it solved, haha. Back to fully enjoying the device!

I have this issue also.
I had a nexus 5 before on EE and pretty much always had 3-4 bars if not full signal. On the GS6 still with EE i rarely see it go above 1 bar.
I am still within my 14 day return time but i am stuck now with what to do. Do i risk waiting to see if this is fixed with a software update or return it. If i wait and its not fixed them im stuck with a phone that gets very little signal. If i return it i have no idea what else i would get as i love this phone. I have also tried another GS6 in store but same issue so makes me wonder is this a software or hardware issue. Seems several people on varying networks have this issue.

I have the same experience. -113 dBm at home inside our house.
1 max 2 bars on the signal indicator. Lots of places where I had 4-5 bars on my One M8 I now have these -113 dBm on S6 4G, or only 3G connection (-79 dBm - 4 bars, the max on S6). Sitting here with my SIM card placed in my M8 I get -98 dBm 39 asu inside our house. Thats 4 out of 5 bars on the HTC indicator. It's the same with other 4G handsets we have in the house. I have a cheap company Nokia 4G phone that also have 4 bars inside the house. I've had a Z3 compact that also had great reception on 4G. I think I have data enough to conclude:
Conclusion: S6 have bad LTE/4G reception. Very very sorry about this. This is a real stepdown from what I otherwise think of the S6 handset. Other than that, I don't know wether this can be made better by software, but I doubt it..
EDIT: Just tried by wifes Samsung A5, which sees -97 dBm on my SIM card.

Different carrier roms seem to deal with the signal differently, but essentially it's a cosmetic issue. I'm using the Three UK (H3G) rom and my signal bars work fine but my dBm signal level in settings is always stuck at -113dBm.
I took these 2 screenshots at the same time standing in a great 4G signal area:
http://i.imgur.com/n6eUmaS.png
http://i.imgur.com/v5KsmgH.png
As you can see, the settings shows -113dBm but the service menu (*#0011# in dialer) shows -84dBm.

Maybe this thread is really about that - the signal interpretation internally. But nevertheless my S6 handset is 'downscaling' to 3G all the time (and staying there), hente twice the roundtrip and less bandwidth for me.

duckstardeluxe said:
Maybe this thread is really about that - the signal interpretation internally. But nevertheless my S6 handset is 'downscaling' to 3G all the time (and staying there), hente twice the roundtrip and less bandwidth for me.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It sounds like you have a different issue. Have you tried checking what your signal is in the service menu using *#0011#?

I'm getting an error dialing the service menu (OSSD code) stating N/A.

duckstardeluxe said:
I'm getting an error dialing the service menu (OSSD code) stating N/A.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Are you typing it in exactly like this: *#0011# ?

Here in Italy very bad signal with TIM also with 3g. Where my Iphone and Note 4 get full signal only 2 bars on my GS6. What the hell Samsung always release buggy phone!!!

I forgot to mention that I was running the Lite version of the stock rom found here on XDA. The service code don't work on that rom, which made me downgrade to my backup of the stock rom.
I'm getting RSRP:-98 RSRQ:-6 RSSI:-71

duckstardeluxe said:
I forgot to mention that I was running the Lite version of the stock rom found here on XDA. The service code don't work on that rom, which made me downgrade to my backup of the stock rom.
I'm getting RSRP:-98 RSRQ:-6 RSSI:-71
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That matches your M8.